Sierra Leone entered a week-long mourning period for the victims of the flooding that has killed more than 300 people, with fears that the death toll could rise as 600 remain missing.

AFP news agency reported on Wednesday that among the dead were at least 105 children.

Three days of torrential rain triggered mudslides on Monday in the Regent area of the Sierra Leonean capital, Freetown. It also caused massive flooding elsewhere in the city, one of the world’s wettest urban areas in the world.

In a statement on Wednesday, President Ernest Bai Koroma’s office asked relatives to come to the city’s overwhelmed mortuary. All unidentified corpses will be given a “dignified burial” in the coming days, it said.

Satellite images released on Wednesday showed the extensive damage caused by deadly mudslides and floods that have rendered about 3,000 people homeless.

The United Nations said on Tuesday it was evaluating the humanitarian needs in the West African country of seven million people.

“Contingency plans are being put in place to mitigate any potential outbreak of waterborne diseases such as cholera, typhoid and diarrhoea,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

He said the UN has mobilised its staff and is helping rescue and evacuate residents, while providing medical and food assistance to the injured and registering survivors.

Dujarric said the International Organization for Migration (IOM) released $150,000 in emergency funds immediately following the flooding.

Radio journalist Gibril Sesay said he lost his entire family. “I am yet to grasp that I survived, and my family is gone,” he said through sobs, unable to continue.

Ahmed Sesay, the caretaker of a two-story house near the Guma Valley Dam east of the capital, said he was sleeping around 6:00 GMT when he felt a vibration.

“It was like an earthquake. I ran out of my quarters to the gate of the compound,” he said. “The ground shook, and I had to stay outside the compound until daybreak,” Sesay added.

‘We have started burying’

Sulaiman Zaino Parker, an official with Freetown’s city council, said 150 burials took place on Tuesday evening and that many would be laid to rest in graves alongside victims of the country’s last humanitarian disaster, the Ebola crisis, in nearby Waterloo.

“We have started burying some of the mutilated and decomposed bodies. All the corpses will be given a dignified burial with Muslim and Christian prayers,” Parker said.

The graves would be specially marked for future identification, he added.

On Tuesday, President Koroma issued a desperate appeal for help, saying the damage was “overwhelming us.”

The government of Sierra Leone, one of the poorest countries in the world, has promised relief to thousands of people left homeless, opening an emergency response centre in Regent and four registration centres.

The Red Cross said it was struggling to excavate families buried deep in the mud that engulfed their homes.

“We are racing against time, more flooding and the risk of disease to help these affected communities survive and cope with their loss,” said Abu Bakarr Tarawallie, a Red Cross official.

On August 14, a mudslide killed more than 400 people in the mountain town of Regent on the outskirts of Sierra Leone‘s capital Freetown, sweeping away homes and leaving residents desperate for news of missing family members.

Here is what we know about it so far:

What happened and when?

A hillside collapsed on Monday at 6am local time (06:00 GMT), causing a mudslide on the outskirts of Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown.

The mudslide and rain overwhelmed Freetown’s drainage system, creating waterways that churned down steep streets across the capital.

Mudslides overran several houses killing residents, many of whom were trapped inside.

Military personnel have been deployed to help rescue those still trapped.

The morgue at Freetown’s Connaught Hospital has been so overwhelmed by dead bodies that many of them have been left on the floor for lack of space.

According to Sierra Leone’s president, an emergency response centre has been established in Regent.

Where did it happen?

The flooding took place in the mountain town of Regent, on the outskirts ofFreetown, Sierra Leone’s capital.

Located about 16km from the capital, the town of roughly one million people sits between the Atlantic Ocean and a range of hills.

Many people in Regent live in informal settlements on steep hillsides.

Could it have been prevented?

A mudslide triggered by torrential floods is typically considered a natural disaster, but the uprooting of trees for construction on the hillside is known to have made the soil unstable and more vulnerable to collapse.

In Sierra Leone, storms and torrential downpours are common in August and September. In 2015, floods killed 10 people and left thousands homeless.

This year, Sierra Leone has seen 104cm of rain since July 1, which is three times more than expected during the rainy season according to the US National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center.

The Sierra Leone meteorological department did not issue a warningto hasten evacuations from danger zones before the torrential rainfall between August 11 to August 14, AFP reported.

Sierra Leone has banned construction on the hillsides, and officials have repeatedly warned against it.

How many casualties?

More than 400 people died in the flooding, 105 of which are children.

It’s estimated that at least 600 people remain missing.

By Monday morning, the mortuary at Connaught Hospital was overwhelmed by the number of dead, and bodies had to be laid on the floor, coroner’s technician Sinneh Kamara told The Associated Press.

Is it safe now? What is the latest on the ground?

Risk of more flooding and waterborne diseases such as cholera and typhoid.

Local state of emergency declared.

Satellite images show extensive damage, with hundreds of buildings destroyed.

About 3,000 people are now homeless.

The Red Cross is struggling to excavate families buried deep in the mud that engulfed their homes.

What happens next?

The International Organization for Migration released $150,000 in emergency funds.

The government of Sierra Leone promised relief to thousands of people left homeless, opening an emergency response centre in Regent and four registration centres.

The UN said it was evaluating humanitarian needs in the country and that “contingency plans are being put in place to mitigate any potential outbreak of waterborne diseases such as cholera, typhoid and diarrhoea”, according to spokesman Stephane Dujarric.

Turkey, the UK and Israel say they are sending aid, including clean water, medicine and blankets.

President promised “dignified burials”, 150 took place on Tuesday evening.

A group of Palestinian activists, academics, and civil society organisations have launched a campaign to deter African nations from partaking in the upcoming Africa-Israel summit, slated to take place in Togo in October.

Several African countries, including South Africa, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Mauritania, have already decided to boycott the summit, where Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to meet leaders from more than 20 countries to rekindle a diplomatic and economic relationship. The summit will be the first of its kind.

According to activist Razan Zuayter, a campaign organiser based in Jordan, the Popular Conference for Palestinians Abroad is seeking to point out to African countries Israel’s “dangerous” activities in the continent, such as its diamond trade, often illegally imported from Africa as revealed in a 2009 United Nations report, and its mistreatment of African minorities in Israel.

“If it [the summit] happens, we want a counter movement to emerge in Africa that can act in parallel to it,” Zuayter told Al Jazeera.

The summit, scheduled for October 23, will have leaders from Africa and Israel discuss ways to enhance cooperation in the fields of technology, development and security.

In a letter addressed to African governments and their respective embassies, the Popular Conference for Palestinians Abroad organisation called for the boycott of the summit on the basis that establishing relations with an “apartheid state” and condoning its actions against the occupied Palestinian people comes in violation of various UN conventions.

“African countries which fought colonialism for decades and became free after a long suffering should never associate themselves with the only, longest and most brutal colonial project in the world today,” the letter reads.

“In the name of justice and freedom and in the name of the African legacy of long struggle for freedom, we ask your country to disassociate from Israel’s Apartheid regime.”

Netanyahu previously pledged to strengthen ties with the continent and described his pledge as a “priority” at a regional security conference he attended in Liberia in June 2017.

“I believe in Africa, I believe in its potential- present and future. It is a continent on the rise,” he said in his address to West African leaders.

Historically, African leaders did not have warm relationships with the State of Israel. Following the 1973 October War, sub-Saharan African countries severed ties with Israel. In 2016, Netanyahu became the first Israeli leader to visit sub-Saharan Africa in almost three decades.

The organisation, representing the Palestinian diaspora, is also working with civil society groups and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) on the ground to pressure participating governments into pulling out from the summit.

Salman Abu Sitta, Chairperson of the organisation, told Al Jazeera that these African countries have been “hard, determined fighters” in the battle against western colonialism.

“It [the summit] is a very sad regression; it is regrettable that they deny that history and became enemies of their history…to become aligned with the very epitome of racism and discrimination that is Israel,” he said.

“Is Togo ready to send ships of slaves from Togo to Israel in annotation of their long history?” he added.

According to Abu Sitta, the main consequence of a renewed Africa-Israel relationship is losing what is now a “solid majority” in the UN General Assembly in favour of ending the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

Traditionally, African nations have been supporters of the Palestinian cause when voting on resolutions concerning the right of return, the dismantlement of the Separation Wall, and ending the illegal settlement expansion project.

Out of 193 member states, there are 54 African states in the UN.

“If we lose them [African votes], it is very dangerous,” Abu Sitta explained.

“Israel will have centres of influence in these countries, which will actively increase Israel’s influence in the UN and in the African continent,” he added, pointing out that the countries involved with organising the summit, including Togo, may have “private or monetary” motives for setting up the summit.

Al Jazeera reached out to the summit organisers for comment but received no reply in time for publication.

Similarly, Ghada Karmi, an academic and spokesperson for the organisation, told Al Jazeera that the campaign is significant in encouraging a discussion about Israeli “apartheid” policies and in raising awareness.

Israel, Karmi said, is determined to carry out the summit to reverse or abolish the pro-Arab policy of the African states. If the summit were successful, it would be “a milestone on the Israeli campaign”, she explained.

“We have to ask what is Israel offering to the African countries – it seems to us that it is offering support for dictators,” she said, which would aid governments in repressing “liberation movements”. “This [campaign] should be done at the state level,” said Karmi, describing the lack of government action as problematic.

“We have been reaching out to states to condemn this summit, not only African governments.”

South African human rights activist and political analyst Ayesha Kajee, based in Johannesburg, told Al Jazeera that Israel has been on a mission to strengthen ties with Africa, even to the “extent of attempting to gain observer status at the African Union”.

“While these new friendships with Israel might bring certain African countries short-term benefits…they should beware of Israel’s longer-term agenda, which may ultimately be detrimental to their own national interests,” she said.

During Netanyahu’s visit to the continent in 2016, the Israeli government approved a $13m deal in development packages for African countries. The move was intended to symbolise the start of a closer economic relationship.

Speaking to Al Jazeera from the Occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, Mustafa Barghouti, the former Palestinian information minister and general secretary of the Palestinian National Initiative political party, said that Israel is taking advantage of its technological abilities and of its military and security services to carry out the summit.

“We started seeing changing trends in the UN with regards to the Palestinian cause,” he said. “Loss of support could lead to dominance of the Israeli narrative about the Palestinian issue and about the situation today.”

In addition to utilising support from the United States to establish a base in African countries, Barghouti said that this relationship is a chance for Israel to “market” their products and surveillance services, especially at a time where the activities of the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement are proving effective in curbing Israel’s economic success.

Naeem Jeenah, executive director of the Afro-Middle East Centre in Johannesburg, told Al Jazeera that a relationship with Israel would undermine African countries’ sovereignty.

Through marketing their products and services, Israel seeks to penetrate into the security services of these countries, Jeenah explained.

“It is a problem when a foreign state takes over the security functions of another government…they [African governments] become dependent on the Israelis,” he said.

Despite ongoing efforts to raise awareness, according to Jeenah, some 15 African countries are already in the “Israeli camp”, and no amount of civil society can reverse that.

African countries who oppose Israeli policies have not been vocal, he says, but with more government pressure, countries “on the fence…could be influenced”.

Hundreds of people are feared dead after a mudslide on the outskirts of Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown, officials and witnesses say.

Victor Foh, vice president of the West African country, has said many people are still buried underneath the debris.

“It is likely that hundreds are lying dead underneath the rubble,” Foh told Reuters news agency at the scene of Monday’s mudslide in the mountain town of Regent.

He said a number of illegal buildings had been erected in the area hit by the mudslide.

“The disaster is so serious that I myself feel broken,” he said. “We’re trying to cordon [off] the area [and] evacuate the people.”

“I counted over 300 bodies and more are coming,” Mohamed Sinneh, a morgue technician at Freetown’s Connaught Hospital, told AFP news agency, having earlier described an “overwhelming number of dead” at the facility leaving no space to lay out every body.

Sierra Leone’s national broadcaster announced late on Monday that the death toll had risen above 300.

Initial Red Cross estimates said as many as 3,000 people were left homeless by the disaster and that figure was expected to rise. Communications and electricity also were affected.

The mortuary at Connaught Hospital was overwhelmed by the number of dead, and bodies had to be spread out on the floor, coroner’s technician Sinneh Kamara told The Associated Press.

The toll did not include the untold numbers buried alive in their homes as they slept. More bodies also were expected to be found as floodwaters recede.

‘Disastrous’ situation

Rescue workers tried trying to reach those trapped, after buildings were submerged in two areas of the city.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Ishmeal Alfred Charles of the Healey International Relief Foundation, Freetown, described the situation as “disastrous”, saying that many houses had been “wiped away” by the rushing mudslide.

Sierra Leone’s national television broadcaster interrupted its regular programming to show scenes of people trying to retrieve their loved ones’ bodies.

Others were seen carting relatives’ remains in rice sacks to the morgue.

Images obtained by AFP news agency showed a ferocious churning of dark orange mud coursing down a steep street, while videos posted by local residents showed people waist and chest-deep in water trying to cross the road.

Military personnel have been deployed to help in the rescue operation, officials said.

‘Pretty desperate situation’

Ramatu Jalloh, advocacy director of Save the Children in Freetown, told Al Jazeera that the death toll could still rise from the mudslide, which started early in the morning.

“It’s a pretty desperate situation,” she said as she described the frantic reaction of residents of the area as the flooding started.

Because of the scale of the tragedy, Jalloh said the country “needs more help and more support” to help the victims in the coming days.

Many of the impoverished areas of Freetown are close to sea level and have poor drainage systems, exacerbating flooding during the rainy season.

Apex Igbo socio-cultural group, Ohanaeze Ndigbo has lambasted the “silence” of some northern leaders on the hate songs against Igbos currently trending in the country.

The group also gave notice to the Yemi Osinbajo-led Federal government to deal with the situation decisively “or forever be held responsible for the consequences this abdication of responsibility provoke”.

President General of the Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief John Nnia Nwodo, in a statement on Thursday said it was surprising that northern leaders were yet to openly condemn the hate songs.

Nwodo said: “The current Hausa hate song trending in the social media is despicable, sad and disappointing. Ohanaeze is appalled that prominent leaders in the north (with the exception of a few), have allowed this development to flourish without reproach.

“The Arewa youths have stoked the embers of hatred to a discomforting temperature. The toleration of their criminal conduct has portrayed the Federal government as biased and unfair.”

“Their quit notice to fellow Nigerians to leave any part of Nigeria strikes at the fundamental rights of citizenship. It is a call for the dissolution of the country. Their call for an inventory and seizure of assets of Nigerians living in the North is conversion. It amounts to a day light robbery of lawful property.

“The declaration of mop up action after October 1st, 2017 to deal with those who resist their quit notice order is a declaration of war. It is surprising that on top of all these a hate song calling for more hatred, despise and “abortion” has been allowed to fester.

“Yet no one is arrested. All the orders of arrest from Kaduna state and the IGP seem to be ambivalent and unreal. The youths meet freely with Governors of Northern Nigeria and Northern leaders showing that they enjoy their support.

“This development signals the beginning of a national catastrophe which if not nipped in the bud will snowball into incalculable damage to our continued existence as one country”.
Source: Daily Post

The United Nations says unidentified gunmen attacked the headquarters of the UN peacekeeping force in the northern Mali city of Timbuktu, killing seven people and injuring seven others.

The UN peacekeeping mission says six assailants also were killed by UN peacekeepers in the attack on Monday afternoon.

The mission says five Malian security guards and a Malian contractor working for the mission were killed along with a member of the Malian gendarmerie.

UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said earlier on Monday that unidentified gunmen attacked two neighbouring UN camps in Douentza in the Mopti region of central Mali, killing one Malian soldier and one UN peacekeeper. Two assailants also died in those attacks.

“I do not have enough words to condemn this cowardly and despicable act which takes place a few hours after the terrorist attack in Douentza,” Mahamat Saleh Annadif, head of MINUSMA, said in a statement.

The Managing Director of Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, Mr. Nsima Ekere, has pledged to sustain the funding of its foreign scholarship programme which started seven years ago.

Mr Ekere, who made the promise in an interview with newsmen in his office at the Commission’s headquarters in Port Harcourt, stated that NDDC would not abandon any of the scholars properly enrolled into the scholarship scheme.

He affirmed that over 80 per cent of the disbursements have been made, adding that all genuine NDDC scholars would definitely receive their due disbursements. “It might take time and we regret the delay and hardships, but we are doing everything possible to ensure that we release the funds to them as soon as possible,” Ekere assured.

The NDDC Chief Executive Officer regretted that some people were using the NDDC scholarship scheme to defraud the government because it was being paid in foreign currency. According to him, “they pretend to be NDDC scholars, when indeed they are not. So this is the problem that we have had and that is why some of the scholars didn’t get their money in time.”

Mr Ekere sympathized with the honest scholars who were caught up in the delays, assuring that where genuine cases were identified, they would be treated immediately. “We understand what they are going through and the hardships they have had to face and we also seek their understanding because a lot of people abused the scholarship scheme,” he said.

The NDDC boss said: “We discovered that there were a lot of discrepancies in the way the scholarship program was being administered. We award scholarships for studies abroad but you find out that money were paid to people who were still in Nigeria. We didn’t see why that should happen.

“There were other cases where people got admission for a certain courses in a certain schools and then along the line, because there is a fixed amount that is paid to every scholar, some of them will go to a different university for a different program other than what the scholarship is for, just because maybe the school is cheaper. So in our records here, we may see that the scholar is probably in the University of Aberdeen, meanwhile we are getting an invoice from a university in Canada.”

Mr Ekere noted that the scholarship scheme was borne of the need to bridge the huge manpower deficit in the Niger Delta region, especially in Engineering, Science and Technology, EST, the fields that drive the oil industry. He added: “We have certain areas we want to concentrate on because we want to develop professional manpower. We discover that some of them have gone for other courses different from what the scholarship was for. So these are some of the areas and we set up a committee to look at and try to resolve.”

He said that within two weeks of setting up a committee to address the challenge, the first set of disbursement were made for those people that had no issues. Shortly after, he said, another set of release were made. “What is remaining is just a very negligible number which we are still working and will soon resolve,” he said.

In anther development, the NDDC will spend N2 billion Naira for the renovation of schools in the Niger Delta region as provided for in its 2017 budget.

This was made known by the NDDC Managing Director, Mr. Ekere, when members of the executive of the Regina Coeli College, Essene, Old Boys Association, paid him a courtesy visit at the Commission’s headquarters in Port Harcourt.

Mr Ekere assured the Old Boys Association that their alma mater would benefit from the renovation exercise. He regretted that the school which used to be a center of excellence in education was now saddled with dilapidated infrastructure. Unfortunately, he said, this was the lot of many schools in the Niger Delta region.

He stated: “This is what has made NDDC to be intervening actively in the renovation of schools. This year we have made a provision of N2 billion Naira for the renovations of schools in the region. We have an extra N1billion for schools in Akwa ibom State and some of this will definitely be extended to Regina Coeli College.”

The NDDC boss noted that education was the key to the development of the society, adding that it was also the tool that could be used to fight insecurity. He said: “If you educate the minds of the people, and educate the minds of the youths, they will know that violence is not an option. They will concentrate and channel their energies and resources towards sustainable livelihoods rather than engage in violence and criminality.”

Mr Ekere said that the NDDC was determined to support education at all levels, adding: “We know that the State governments in the region are doing a lot in the education sector, but being an interventionist agency, we will see where gaps exist and fill them.”

He assured that the Commission would respond to the needs of the schools where necessary, stating that NDDC was ready to work with the old boys of the school to restore the dilapidated facilities.

The President of the Old Boys Association, Chief Clement Isok, said that they were eager and desirous to restore the college to its former glory as one of the elite secondary schools in Nigeria.

According to him, the school was once “the toast of the 60s and 70s with educational and infrastructural facilities that were second to none and was the undisputed choice of parents nationwide for the training of their prized wards.”

Chief Isok lamented: “The College is currently bedeviled with an avalanche of problems. For instance, the College has no perimeter fence, thereby exposing the students and staff to serious security threats.The main entrance road to the College and internal roads are being washed off by erosion and have become inaccessible.The Academic block, Chapel, dormitories and staff quarters have all deteriorated to various stages of disrepair. More pathetic is the fact that the College Assembly/Dining Hall which had been the pride of the students has gradually degenerated into a prison-like cafeteria with blown off roof.”